Entries in START
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Photo Courtesy - Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Americans overwhelmingly welcomed the flurry of lawmaking between the lame-duck Congress and President Obama last month -- but they're hedging their bets on whether the duck keeps quacking.

In the latest ABC News/Yahoo! News poll, 77 percent say it was good for Obama and Congress to agree to lame-duck legislation on tax cuts, unemployment benefits, gays in the military, the START treaty and aid to 9/11 responders. That percentage includes majorities across the spectrum -- 91 percent of Democrats, 79 percent of independents and 62 percent of Republicans.

Yet, despite what the lame-duck session achieved, Americans divide evenly on the chances that Obama and the Republicans in Congress will work together on important issues in the year ahead. Forty-eight percent are optimistic about it -- just 14 percent "strongly" so -- but about just as many, 46 percent, are pessimistic about the prospects for political cooperation.

Optimism peaks among Democrats -- 60 percent see cooperation ahead. That drops to 46 percent of independents and four in 10 Republicans in this poll, produced for ABC and Yahoo! News by Langer Research Associates.

The survey was conducted before the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others in Tucson, Arizona. Further polling will indicate whether that event and its aftermath impact public views of the prospects for political cooperation. ﻿

Photo Courtesy -- Getty Images(WASHINGTON) –President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev spoke by phone Thursday to discuss the new START treaty and to celebrate a productive year in U.S.-Russia relations.

In what the two sides called an historic event, President Medvedev congratulated Obama on the Senate’s approval of the treaty according to White House press release.

The sides also pledged continued cooperation and discussed the success of their work in the areas of “Afghanistan, Iran sanctions, the 123 Agreement, issues related to the WTO, and the situation in Kyrgyzstan."